Alex Hunter is an aspiring photographer who's sent to his aunt and uncle's house while his parents are out of the country on business. All is not normal in the town of Wolf Creek though, and Alex soon discovers the truth behind the rumors of werewolves that roam the woods nearby.
It was adapted into the thirteenth and fourteenth episodes of the third season of the 1995 TV series.
The book provides examples of:
- And Then John Was a Zombie: In the climax, Alex's crush Hannah turns out to be a werewolf, and bites him to possibly turn him into one as well.
- Bait-and-Switch:
- After Alex's night of sneaking out, stalking the werewolves to film them, and finding out that they are actually his aunt and uncle, he sneaks back to the house, and Colin firmly tells him to come with him and brings him to the garage. Alex is afraid that he might do something terrible to him, but Colin was actually asking him for help with a weed-whacker for yard work.
- Also, that same night on Halloween, Alex is working on his pirate costume and secretly planning on getting rid of the wolf skins, Marta enters his room frowning and telling him that it won't work. She was actually referring to his costume that he had on and wanted to make adjustments.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Alex wanted to be a werewolf for Halloween, and he goes out on Halloween night dressed in a wolf skin as part of a ploy. As he was putting the skin on, he lampshaded that he guess he got his wish, just not in the way he had intended to do it.
- Big "NO!": When Marta asks Alex what he plans on dressing up for Halloween as, he replies instantly that he is going to be a werewolf, and she reacts with this trope.
- Change the Uncomfortable Subject: While at the dinner table on the first night at his aunt and uncle's, Alex notices that both of them are acting weird and nervous. He asks them if everything is okay, which Colin is about to respond, but then Marta abruptly asks Alex and Hannah if they're thinking about their Halloween costumes.
- Cruel Twist Ending: The hero's crush is also a werewolf and she attacks him, either to kill and eat him or to curse him to be a werewolf too.
- Drives Like Crazy: Alex's uncle Colin. As Marta says of him to Alex, "Your uncle only knows one speed — light speed."
- Facial Dialogue: The next morning after Alex escapes his confined room and stalks two werewolves at night, he tries to sneak back only for his aunt and uncle to be at the kitchen. He and them try to be casual, but the way they keep coldly staring at him tells him plainly that they know he somehow got out of his locked door and they suspect that he knows their big secret.
- Foreshadowing: While in class with a teacher who is explaining about werewolves, Hannah asks him if girls can be werewolves as well. This indicates her interest in getting a werewolf skin of her own. And she indeed gets one by the end of the story.
- For Your Own Good: This is what Aunt Marta and Uncle Colin tell Alex for locking him in his bedroom at night so he does not go sneaking out. They were actually just using that as an excuse to stop him from finding out their major secret.
- George Lucas Altered Version: When the book was re-released digitally in 2015, some lines were changed:
- When Alex is describing his camera, the re-release adds the line "It's the old-fashioned kind with film", due to digital photography being more commonplace compared to back in 1997 (when the book was originally published), also implying that Alex is a photography enthusiast who likes shooting photos on film.
- Alex's line to Sean and Arjun that "It's practically the twenty-first century" is shortened to "It's the twenty-first century".
- Alex describing a
torn-up dead animal is changed from an "ugly sight" to a "gross scene".
- Going in Circles: Alex is in the woods at night trying to get home, and considers this trope by going in one direction and keep going no matter what. But then he recalled a book he'd read where a guy who was lost in the desert tried walking in a straight line, and he just made circles. He went around and around and didn't even realize it until he saw his own footprints in the sand. Therefore, Alex decided not to do this.
- Group Hug: After Alex and Hannah free Colin and Marta from their curse, they all end up in one.
- Halloween Episode: The last example of the original series, in which the climactic encounter with the werewolves happens on Halloween night.
- Kill It with Fire: According to Alex's new teacher, burning a werewolf's skin will also kill the werewolf.
- Madness Mantra: While Colin and Marta are chasing Alex and Hannah for their wolf skins, they keep chanting "Give us our skins!"
- Mating Dance: The werewolves have an odd one. After transforming, they rake their silvery claws at each other playfully, pretending to attack. They then drop to all fours and nuzzle each other. This makes all the more sense when it's revealed that the two creatures are Colin and Marta.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When the full moon comes out and Alex's aunt and uncle don't have their skins on, the two seem to be suffering utter pain. This causes to cry out, "Hannah - what have we done?" Luckily, Colin and Marta turn out not to be dying, but were actually feeling their werewolf curse being lifted off of them.
- Neck Snap: One of the werewolves does this to a rabbit before it and the other werewolf devoured the corpse.
- Nephewism: Alex, whose parents leave him with his aunt and uncle for at least two weeks, if not longer, and attend the local school while they're out of the country on business.
- Oh, Crap!: Alex has this when Marta and Colin catch him outside the house early in the morning after the night he followed two werewolves (or rather, them) in the woods.
- Ominously Open Door: The second night Alex sneaks out of his aunt and uncle's place, the Marlings' back door was open. Alex thinks to himself that the wind swung it open as if to invite him in.
- Ominous Owl: Alex hears an owl hooting in the forest at night, which adds to the unease that he feels as he prowls around outside alone looking for his camera.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: The werewolves in the book are actually based on the Native American Skin Walker myth — they only transform when they don their special skins, and are cursed so that they're driven to don them under the light of the full moon. If they're kept apart from the skins long enough on such a night, the curse is broken.
- Pauper Patches: Hannah plans on going as a rag doll for Halloween, and her costume involves this trope.
- Phoney Call: At breakfast one morning after Alex snuck out, he came into the kitchen to witness Marta seemingly having a conversation on the phone with the Marling's about her nephew seemingly spying on their property, and her promising that it won't happen again. This whole thing turned out to be fake as her way to ensure that Alex stays in the house at night. That, and the fact that the Marling's weren't actually real.
- The Prankster: Sean Kiner and Arjun Khosla, two local kids in Wolf Creek. The first time they meet Alex, they scare Alex by howling like wolves, then try to trick him into thinking he's standing in poison ivy. Later, they tell him about the werewolves in the forest, and promise to show him where they drink if he'll meet them in the woods after dark, only for it to be revealed the next day that they were lying.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Hannah lets one out before attacking Alex. Or what might be a Pre-Mortem One-Liner, considering Hannah could have killed Alex at the end of the book.
Alex: Huh? I don't get it.
Hannah: You will. (Then pounces on Alex, knocking him to the floor, digging her fangs into his chest).
- Rapid-Fire "But!":
- When angrily confronting his aunt and uncle about locking him in his room at night, they tell Alex that they're responsible for him and that they're just trying to keep him safe. Alex's response is to sputter this trope out.
- Hannah has this response as well when Alex brings her to his room to tell her that the Marling's next door aren't real and his aunt and uncle are the werewolves.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: After Alex distracts the werewolves from hurting a deer, which allowed the poor thing to run away safely, the eyes of the two beasts seem to reflect red to Alex.
- So Much for Stealth: When first trying to stalk the werewolves and take pictures of them, Alex had a twig scrape against his face as he was rising up, which caused him to drop his camera on the ground with a loud THUD. This causes the werewolves to look toward him and start to investugate. Luckily for him, the creatures thought It's Probably Nothing, and continue hunting other wildlife.
- Sudden Downer Ending: Alex manages to free his aunt and uncle from the werewolf skin curse, and they all celebrate as they make their way back home. But then Alex's friend turns out to be a werewolf and bites him, either cursing or outright killing him.
- There Is No Cure: Subverted. The exposition-providing teacher who seems to know everything about the werewolves in this book says there is no cure. The protagonist discovers through practice that keeping a werewolf away from their wolf skin (which they need in order to transform) until after the moon peaks will break the curse.
- Wolves Always Howl at the Moon: The two werewolves that Alex follows do this. Alex himself does this to distract the beasts from killing and eating a deer.
- You're Insane!: This is Hannah's response when Alex sneaks by her bedroom window at night and asks her to help him track down werewolves.
